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Non-Fiction Books

Over the next few years, I will be releasing four non-fiction books. I love the way, as a writer, I can be more direct with my stories in the non-fiction format. It’s giving me a way to share more fully about my life, not hidden in “fiction”, and a way to use some of the pains and challenges I have been through to help other people.

FINALLY FEARLESS: JOURNEY FROM PANIC TO PEACE

How Overcoming Anxiety Helped Me Find True Love

From Cheryl’s Journal: Why am I like this? What is wrong with me? Why am I so afraid? I can’t control my anxiety; these fears seem to overtake me. Does anyone know how I feel? No one else has this problem. I am a freak, and I am alone. Where is God in this?

Do fear and anxiety rule your life? They used to rule mine.

Anxiety kept me from dating and almost prevented me from going after the one dream I wanted most in life: to find true love.

This is the book I was too afraid to write and definitely too afraid to publish. That would mean others could read some of my most private thoughts, pieces of my most difficult and painful journey. Most of my life, I put on a good face, that “life is perfect” façade. It was a sham. Then I realized I had to face my problems, my past, and my fears if I ever wanted to live a normal, healthy life and be able to find true love and get married. In writing this book, I decided to join the imperfect human race. I wrote it because I needed to heal. Maybe you need to heal, too.

Through writing about my story of panic, fear, and seemingly irrational anxieties, I uncovered so much about panic and anxiety disorders, coping techniques, causes of anxiety and fear, soul-searching activities to help unearth the root of anxiety problems, and methods that can bring about healing.

After many years of stagnancy, I found hope. God walked me through every step to help me find ways to grow, heal, change, and climb out from under the relentless thumb of anxiety. I can honestly say I am now healed.

Are you tired of fighting against your fears? Has panic interrupted your life? Has anxiety stopped you from going after your dreams? Has it kept you out of close relationships? I encourage you to read my story and start your soul-searching journey now so you, too, can venture toward peace.

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Finally Fearless: Journey from Panic to Peace is filled with practical advice, exercises, personal stories, and tangible ways for readers to participate in their healing.

FINALLY FEARLESS WORKBOOK:

The Finally Fearless Workbook is meant to be used with the main text, Finally Fearless: Journey from Panic to Peace. It is a great tool for church groups, book clubs, or individuals who want to play an active role in their healing from fear and anxiety.

I am not a medical doctor or a psychologist. I am a creative, intelligent woman. Yet panic and anxiety left me feeling completely out of control. I ached for God to show up and heal me instantly. Instead, He became my Wonderful Counselor, and He walked me through my fears, step by step, toward healing. Much of my personal recovery came through healing exercises I did, the same ones I’m now sharing with you in this companion workbook.

The work you will do here is a reflection of God’s relentless help in healing and encouraging me through these most vital exercises, creative assignments, journaling, reflection, and meditation on key scriptures.

This workbook also contains bonus material not found in the original book, including extra journal entries, assignments, poetry, and helpful collections of Bible verses grouped by topics such as peace, hope, God’s faithfulness, fear, and trust. Are you tired of fighting against your fears? Has panic interrupted your life? Has anxiety stopped you from going after your dreams? Start your soul-searching journey now so you, too, can venture toward peace.

The Finally Fearless Workbook includes a collection of peaceful, original photography by Christopher Price.

“This is one courageous book. In her bravest turn yet, Cheryl McKay dives into the
storm-tossed depths of suffocating anxiety. This unflinchingly honest account is the
personal hand of experience…guiding all who would read to still waters.” –Susan Rohrer,
author THE HOLY SPIRIT: Amazing Power for Everyday People

PRAISE FOR FINALLY FEARLESS:

“With courage and an endearing transparency, Cheryl once again opens her life as a tribute to the grace of her Lord. From the valleys of despair to the mountaintops of victory, through the deserts of loneliness to the healing springs of God’s personal words to her heart, Cheryl reveals her journey from panic to peace. And in the process, she offers hope and help to those who, like she was for so many years, are bound by fear and panic. She is living proof that our Savior did, indeed, come to set the captives free!” —Mark & Patti Virkler, authors of 4 Keys to Hearing God’s Voice and Prayers that Heal the Heart

“For anyone battling fear and anxiety, this book offers hope that healing is possible. Cheryl’s honesty and vulnerability about her deepest fears, heartaches, and periods wrestling with God offer comfort to readers that they are not alone. Cheryl understands how anxiety and fear can imprison you, yet also knows firsthand how the Healer can set you free. Her desire for God to use her pain to help those in the midst of their own battle is clear as she encourages readers toward healing by sharing God’s Truth, insights she’s learned along the way, and practical tips and assignments that have aided her own journey to freedom.” —Christa Sands, author of Learning to Trust Again

“Finally Fearless is an incredible work! It takes you on a journey from a life of complete brokenness and pain to one that’s fully restored and healed through the power of the Holy Spirit. Not only does Cheryl tell you what to do to receive your healing, she shows you step-by-step, illustrating with her own real life examples how to make biblical principles work in your heart. Cheryl shares moments of despair in the depths of depression and then gives a clear pathway to hope and healing. Her testimony is powerful! And if you are in a painful place, you will find one who understands you. Those thoughts you don’t want anyone to know. The secrets you’ve kept hidden for years. Cheryl’s been there, she knows and she cares. She’s written this intensely personal story to give you hope that you, too, can find peace, redemption, and confidence in Christ. “And if you’re one of the few in this world whose life has not been touched by any kind of abuse (physical, sexual, verbal, spiritual) – praise God! But know that there are people in your life right now who have been ravaged by it. Once you read this book, you’ll understand more how they’re feeling, what they’re thinking, and most importantly, how you can help them. I’m excited to see the breakthroughs and life transforming testimonies that I know will come from this. Thank you, Cheryl, for bravely sharing your story with us! God is using it mightily, and I know that many will find release and freedom as they explore these truths and let the Wonderful Counselor heal them completely – spirit, soul and body.” —Dr. Charity Kayembe, Communion with God Ministries

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FINALLY THE BRIDE: FINDING HOPE WHILE WAITING

Released April 2012:

Why Would God Care About My Love Life?

From the woman behind the screenplay and novel, Never the Bride, comes a roller coaster of a love story with God. Cheryl McKay pulls no punches about what it’s really like to be single, with your age creeping up, and no end in sight to the wait for love and marriage.

It seems that many years ago, God asked Cheryl to surrender the pen she was using to write her love story. All He wanted was carte blanche. No problem, right? Cheryl tentatively conceded–that is, until it became apparent that the Almighty had no intention of conforming to her writing schedule, much less the tick of her biological clock. In fact, He blew every deadline she ever attempted to set. As romance seemed to pass Cheryl by, she couldn’t help but question: Could God really be trusted to bring her the love of her life?

Written during a long wait, this book opens up Cheryl’s painfully honest, personal journals. She explores what it’s like to enlist in God’s Marriage Boot Camp, and how to survive singlehood year after solitary year. She wrestles with her Creator over multiple best friends that never see her “that way.” Then there are those lists of what she wanted–you know, the ones she revised a billion times then laminated for safekeeping. She watches, bewildered, as much younger women find love that seems to elude her.

Through it all, she falls head over heels for a God who proves Himself to be as resistant to her controls as He is faithful beyond her wildest dreams.

Are you still waiting? Have you lost hope? Venture to victory with a woman who knows just how hard it is to wait for the day when you are Finally the Bride.

This book includes a collection of real-life God-written love stories by such authors as SQuire Rushnell & Louise DuArt (God Winks Series, Couples Who Pray), and Victorya Michaels Rogers (Finding a Man Worth Keeping).

PRAISE FOR FINALLY THE BRIDE:

“You know how in a romantic comedy, the girl gets the guy in about one hour and forty minutes? If that’s not your story, this book is for you. Cheryl has turned her journey of pain, rejection, and the endless wait for a soul mate into a book filled with humor, rawness, sometimes hard-to-swallow truth, and most of all, hope. Whether you’re waiting on true love or waiting for God to answer your most important prayer, come along with Cheryl and you’ll feel less alone and more empowered to wait at the feet of a Savior who dearly loves you. By the end of it all, you’ll gladly ‘surrender the pen.’ Finally the Bride is a beautiful account of a girl chasing a guy and God chasing the girl.”

Rene Gutteridge, Author, My Life as a Doormat, Co-Author, Never the Bride

“Starved for a soul mate? Follow McKay’s breadcrumbs along this very personal journey of faith. This is no light confection of a book. Frankly witty and achingly raw, it is written out of first-hand experience by a woman who choked down one rejection after another, year after bewildering year. It’s about turning to God for heart-level sustenance through extended lean seasons, and the romantic feast she discovered at long last, waiting at the table of her First Love.”
Susan Rohrer, Author, THE HOLY SPIRIT: Amazing Power for Everyday People,
IS GOD SAYING HE’S THE ONE: Hearing from Heaven about That Man in Your Life

“We met right after high school, dated throughout college, and had the blessing of being married in our early 20s. This allowed us to almost grow up together and begin pursuing our calling as a couple. Other people, like Cheryl, find purpose during many years of singleness while waiting for that much-desired walk down the aisle. Cheryl is a gifted writer who brings a great perspective to anyone seeking to find the right spouse or have a great marriage.”
Crystal Stovall, Author, A Groom Worth Waiting For & Jim Stovall, Author,The Ultimate Gift

“Cheryl’s willingness to be vulnerable and share the personal, sometimes painful, lessons of faith, learned as a single Christian woman wrestling with God’s timing and perfect plan for her life, brings such hope and encouragement to those in their own season of waiting. You are not alone. Here is someone who gets it, who has lived it, and offers practical tips and wise advice from her own experience. Cheryl’s words bring laughter, tears, and a reminder of truth: that God is for us, His plans are good and perfect, and He is trustworthy to use the pain and joy of our lives to write a beautiful story, if only we will surrender the pen.”
Christa Sands, Author, Learning to Trust Again

“With courageous transparency, Cheryl invites us to share her journey of faith as she waits on God to write her love story. Sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking, the path is not a smooth or easy one. Cheryl lays bare her heart as she expresses her frustration, mistakes, joys, and victories. And through it all, her fierce pursuit of her Lord and His will alone shines through. The words she received from the Lord in her journal are rich with wisdom that will resonate with all of us who have waited longer than we expected for God’s promises to be fulfilled. Funny. Honest. Wise. Not just a book for singles, every Christian can grow and be blessed by the truths Cheryl has learned.”

Mark & Patti Virkler, Authors, 4 Keys to Hearing God’s Voice, Counseled by God,
Prayers that Heal the Heart, Rivers of Grace“Finally the Bride is a wonderfully warm, vulnerable, and frank illustration of what it means to let God write your love story, and what it is to have a love story with God. McKay offers practical, and often humorous, advice on not getting sidetracked from the ultimate goal of letting God be the only One in your life to chose the one for your life. As Cheryl reveals her very personal triumphs and failures in her struggle to be patient, she emphasizes the importance of not getting stuck in the desperation of waiting and wanting. She encourages the single person who believes they are to be married, to live life fully in the waiting—to enjoy the time with God and learn what it means to be fully committed to Him, before being committed to a different ‘him.’”

Cheryl McKay’s Blog Site

Welcome. I hope you'll grab some chocolate M&Ms (or for the health conscious, dark chocolate of a 60% or higher cacao rating) and stay awhile.

About Me

Thank you for visiting my blog. I am a screenwriter, book author (non-fiction, children's books, and co-written novelizations of my film scripts), married to the love of my life after a long wait to find love, an advocate for the hearts of singles who are losing hope in their waiting, and passionate about the health of marriages.

I will use this site to sometimes blog about random insights, and post updates about book releases, films, interviews, and appearances.

I wrote the film, The Ultimate Gift, co-wrote Never the Bride: a novel & Greetings from the Flipside, authored Finally the Bride: Finding Hope While Waiting, Finally Fearless, Novelizations: How to Adapt Scripts Into Novels (with Rene Gutteridge), Song of Springhill, and Spirit of Springhill, in addition to some children's books and videos.